As mobile telecommunications technology develops to allow data to be transmitted with increased reliability, at faster speeds and over wider areas, the number of applications that can usefully exploit this technology increases. As a result it becomes increasingly clear that a distinction can be drawn between different types of mobile radio technology use.
Traditionally, mobile telecommunications networks were developed to allow human users using mobile handsets to hold telephone conversations, in other words “voice calls”, with other human users. More recently further services, such as the short message service (SMS) were provided enabling users to exchange text based messages. More recently still, mobile data services were developed enabling users to gain access to online communication services such as email communication, instant messaging, video calls and so on. This type of communication supported by mobile radio technology can be broadly classed as “human-to-human” (H2H) communication as it typically involves facilitating the communication of data in one form or another that is created and consumed by human users between two or more communication devices.
In contrast, another class of data communication has developed which takes advantage of mobile radio technology but does not typically involve the communication of data that is created and consumed by human users. This type of data communication normally involves the communication of data between autonomous machines. In other words the generation, transmission and reception of the data occurs without any human intervention. This type of communication is classed as “machine to machine” (M2M) communication or “machine type communication” (MTC). Examples include the transmission of telemetry data from remote sensors to a central processing server. More specific examples include so-called “smart meters” which generate data concerning the consumption of a utility such as gas, electricity or water and transmit this data back to a central server.
As will be appreciated, providing an arrangement in which MTC communication devices can communicate MTC data in a mobile radio network which is shared with H2H communication devices can present a technical problem in respect of making a most efficient use of the resources available to the mobile radio network.